There are a lot of historic buildings represented in the Images of North Carolina collection on DigitalNC, but it’s not often that you have a chance to buy one. I just saw through the Preservation North Carolina website that the Old Ashe County Hospital is up for sale.

Ashe Memorial Hospital

Ashe Hospital interior

Today’s @ncnewspapers headline, from Raeford in 1953, reads “Lions Club Plans Womanless Wedding.” While womanless weddings of a different sort are in the news these days as North Carolina prepares to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment, the event mentioned in the headline was a popular form of entertainment in small towns a few decades ago.

A “womanless wedding” was usually held as a fundraiser and involved prominent men of the community dressing up in full bridal outfits for a mock wedding ceremony. From the stories I’ve heard, it was common practice to get the burliest man in town to play the part of the bride, backed up by a train of equally rough-looking bridesmaids.

I found a couple of newspaper photos of womanless weddings in the DigitalNC collection. The first is from Burgaw in 1957 and was held as a fundraiser for the local high school (from the Burgaw Jaycees Scrapbook, 1957-1958, contributed by the Pender County Public Library). The second is from a Bennett College fundraiser in 1974 (from the Bennett College Scrapbook, 1972-1977).

As the Girl Scouts of the USA celebrate their centennial this year, I wanted to look for historic images of Girl Scouts in North Carolina on DigitalNC. It’s clear that the Girl Scouts have been active throughout the state for many decades. Here are a few highlights from the handful of interesting photos and items relating to Girl Scouts on DigitalNC.org.

Girl Scouts in Greensboro welcome First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during her visit to Bennett College in 1945. Image from the Bennett College Library.

Girl Scout receiving a pin during Scout Week, 1951, in Rocky Mount. Image from the Braswell Memorial Library (Rocky Mount, N.C.).

 

Girl Scouts in Ashe County, ca. 1940s. Image from the Ashe County Public Library

 

Girl Scouts in Burgaw, 1954.  From the Pender County Public Library

We found this ad in an issue of the Sylvan Valley News, published in Brevard on August 10, 1906.  The “novelty” of creating custom postcards was a widespread phenomenon, resulting the creation of many thousands of rare and often unique images that seem especially striking when we come across them today.  Photographic or “real photo” postcards are actual photographic prints produced on postcard backs, enabling the users to mail them as they would a normal postcard.  While the act of simply mailing a snapshot doesn’t seem like a big deal today, it was in the early twentieth-century, as people around the country shared scenic and personal photos with ease.

This Friday the 13th you’d be hard pressed to do more to ward off ill luck than this golfer, who took a string of horseshoes and not just a rabbit’s foot but an actual live rabbit out on the course with him.

This photograph of trick-or-treaters in Rocky Mount in 1950 depicts a suspiciously healthy Halloween scene – these costumed kids are offered an apple in lieu of the traditional sweet treat. But since the photographer, Albert Rabil, shot this image for the News and Observer, it’s a fair guess that the apple was a prop, and that the real treats came later.

The photo is shared online by Braswell Memorial Library (Rocky Mount, N.C.).

A synchronized swimming class from Queens University of Charlotte

Over one hundred historic images of Queens University of Charlotte are now available online. The photographs, circa 1950s, depict both formal and informal scenes of student life at the school, including dances, sports, stunts, classes, and dorm life.